Eating
Disorders
Medical Insights Born of Dance
Doctor draws on her ballet career to raise awareness of
eating disorders
(November 4, 2004) -- When she was a medical resident in a Minnesota
eating disorders unit several years ago, Dr. Olivia Beckman was startled by
the skepticism some of the hospital's doctors had toward people diagnosed with
anorexia nervosa or
bulimia -- conditions characterized, respectively, by patients who barely
eat and those who force themselves to
vomit to avoid gaining weight.
"They were just not sympathetic to what they were seeing," she said.
Beckman, who lives in South Hamilton, knew better. A former professional
dancer, she first encountered eating disorders as a teen attending a ballet
boarding school in Toronto. Some girls intentionally vomited to keep from
gaining pounds they thought might hinder their chances as ballerinas, she said.
One classmate left school because she got too thin, and the image of another
student cutting a slice of cucumber into nine pieces to make it seem like more
food stands out in Beckman's memory.
"I knew there is a need. It's a problem and it's real," said Beckman, who
left ballet to attend medical school and become a doctor specializing in
treatment of the eating disorders she witnessed -- though never fell victim to
herself -- as a dancer. "It's not just an adolescent acting out. It's much
deeper than that. It's how we see ourselves -- perception and distortion."
Appointed as medical director of the Eating Disorders Program at Walden
Behavioral Care in Waltham this fall, Beckman, 37, studied with American Ballet
Theatre in New York and danced professionally with the National Ballet of Canada
and the Berlin Ballet before leaving the field to attend college and then
medical school at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. She worked at
the Eating Disorders Institute of Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park, Minn.,
before moving last summer to South Hamilton, where her husband attends Gordon-Conwell
Theological Seminary.
She now oversees an in-patient unit that treats people as young as 13, and a
day program for those age 16 and up. Most are adolescent females, but the
program treats
boys and men, too. Patients are usually referred by parents, psychologists,
nutritionists, or emergency rooms -- where they might show up with symptoms of
dehydration or low potassium, Beckman said.
One of Beckman's goals is to raise awareness of eating disorders among
pediatricians and primary care doctors. She is working on outreach materials for
area doctors, which will flag certain characteristic symptoms -- low heart rate,
for example -- and urge physicians to be on the lookout for bulimia and
anorexia, even among younger children who might seem unlikely candidates for
eating disorders.
The National Association of Eating Disorders reports that 10 million US
females and one million males suffer from bulimia or anorexia. According to
Walter Kaye, a board member of the association and a professor of psychiatry at
the University of Pittsburgh, 1 to 5 percent of US women have or have had
bulimia or anorexia at some time during their lives.
Kaye is conducting a $12 million study examining genetic causes of
anorexia and bulimia. He said it appears that many people who suffer from eating
disorders are predisposed to developing them. A national trend toward obesity
and media attention on obesity probably wouldn't make a difference to a
population that is
genetically susceptible to eating disorders. He added that the study (www.angenetics.org)
is seeking families with two or more members who have anorexia.
Beckman offered a different view. With more and more schools responding to
the childhood obesity problem, with talks on avoiding high-fat junk food and
eating low-fat, low-calorie foods instead, she said there is a "polarizing"
effect. "You've got kids going in both directions," Beckman said. "People don't
want to be obese and sometimes they overcompensate [becoming anorexic or
bulimic]."
Driven by media images that glorify thinness, 81 percent of American
10-year-olds are afraid of getting fat, according to one Association study,
which also found that over half of 9- and 10-year-old girls feel better about
themselves if they are dieting.
"I've treated people who are 10 years old who have eating disorders," Beckman
said, adding that she has treated young dancers and athletes both in Minnesota
and here. "Some have said 'my teacher told me to lose weight.' Others have said
their coaches told them to lose weight."
In New York, in particular, Beckman said, there was an intense drive for
thinness among her fellow dancers. Willowy by nature, Beckman saw peers
routinely popping pills to burn calories or sate appetites, and knew "it wasn't
normal or right."
Jessica Cunningham, outreach coordinator for Massachusetts Eating Disorders
Association, or MEDA, contends that eating disorders are so prevalent among
dancers that their incidence is underreported. "Especially in the ballet world .
. . they don't tend to report them because it's very much normalized," she said.
Cunningham contended it's not uncommon for dance companies to criticize
dancers who eat too much and praise those who lose weight "even when it's
drastic." She pointed to the death in 1997 of Boston Ballet dancer Heidi
Guenther. The official cause of death was an irregular heartbeat, according to
the Associated Press. Guenther's mother filed a wrongful death suit against the
Boston Ballet, alleging that a company official pressured her 22-year-old
anorexic daughter to lose weight. Finding insufficient facts to support the
lawsuit's claims, a Suffolk Superior Court judge dismissed the lawsuit in 2001.
Cunningham added that MEDA sent educational materials to Massachusetts dance
companies and gyms last summer to raise awareness about eating disorders. Her
group also has presented outreach programs over the last two years to schools
and youth programs in Marblehead, Lynnfield, Salem, Wakefield, and Stoneham.
Noting that she has seen few cases of anorexia among dancers, Paula Shiff,
director of Marblehead School of Ballet, said it's personality and family
dynamics, not dance, that makes certain people prone to eating disorders.
"It's part of the whole [teen] culture," she said. "You go into The Gap or
The Limited and you look at the jeans and you see size zero. What does that
mean?"
Beckman, who saw a vastly different cultural view of what constitutes a
healthy body during a medical residency in Africa, agrees.
Americans are "obsessed with dieting," she said, and when celebrities, such
as actress
Mary-Kate Olsen, are diagnosed with eating disorders, it raises acceptance
as well as awareness.
"I was talking to a school nurse . . . who said she is seeing more trendiness.
It's a cool thing to have," she said, adding that some girls justify their
eating disorders, thinking Olsen "is famous, she's a billionaire. If she can get
away with it, why can't I?"
By Lisa Capone
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